There’s an interesting Outlook piece in today’s Washington Post, detailing what our world was like on September 10, 2001. Among the mundane events of that day were these items which I’m sure the Bush administration would rather we forgot:
The House Rules Committee meets to discuss HR2586, the National Defense Authorization Act for FY2002. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld takes to the airwaves to tout his plan to cut $18 billion a year in the defense budget through military reorganization. Skeptics of the plan fear that budget cuts will ultimately fall on the shoulders of U.S. troops.
… Second-tier cabinet officials agree to a three-phase strategy, drafted over the summer, for dealing with the Taliban: talks first, then diplomatic pressure and covert funding, and as a last resort, “direct action” to overthrow the Taliban. Their report makes it to national security adviser Condoleezza Rice’s desk later today. Also on Rice’s desk are prepared remarks for a speech she is to deliver tomorrow. The speech will discuss “the threats and problems of today and the day after, not the world of yesterday.” It does not talk about bin Laden, al Qaeda or radical Islam.
I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Cheney’s chief of staff, informs Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who had sent Cheney a copy of her legislation on counterterrorism and homeland defense in July, that the vice president will be unable to review her legislation for at least six months.
At the Justice Department, Attorney General John Ashcroft rejects the FBI’s request for $58 million to fund such counterterrorism initiatives as new field agents, intelligence analysts and translators.
And yet, they want us to think that al Qaeda was their top priority back then? Right.
